(v. i.) To make a low, hoarse noise in the throat, as a frog, a raven, or a crow; hence, to make any hoarse, dismal sound.
(v. i.) To complain; especially, to grumble; to forebode evil; to utter complaints or forebodings habitually.
(v. t.) To utter in a low, hoarse voice; to announce by croaking; to forebode; as, to croak disaster.
(n.) The coarse, harsh sound uttered by a frog or a raven, or a like sound.
Example Sentences:
(1) The first two experiments imply that stimulation of the skin of the trunk initiates the release croak; Experiments 3 and 4 suggest that an internal afferent source inhibits the release croak and might mediate an important aspect of receptivity in female frogs.
(2) The cathartic moment, in which the king realises he's OK and lovable just as he is, was wonderful for the film-makers to discover, and has been wonderful for worldwide audiences ever since (and the king doesn't die… he merely "croaks").
(3) Poppies in the long grass, frogs croaking for mates, wasps droning lazily at the window, tomatoes and strawberries ripening in garden pots and crickets buzzing at dusk: these are the sights and sounds of an English summer.
(4) We are all getting older thanks to better living conditions, and the French are way older than they have any right to be considering their diet, but the dependable Swedes who have always been goody-goodies are still croaking in their 80s, so most of us will have to settle for that.
(5) And so they hardly ever leave a flat in which, thanks to the croaking boiler, the temperature hovers around 10 degrees.
(6) With drugs, oblivious, in a basement, frozen nobly on a mountain top, screaming in a car crash, or traditionally in a bed surrounded by our family and children, croaking out our last wishes?
(7) "Intelligent tadpoles reconcile themselves to the inconvenience of their position by reflecting that although most of them will live to be tadpoles and nothing more, the most fortunate of the species will one day shed their tails, distend their mouths and stomachs, hop nimbly on to dry land and croak addresses to their former friends on the virtue by which tadpoles of character and capacity can rise to be frogs."
(8) Three decades later, in July 2011, to watch a slightly pasty, croaking, self-styled "humble" Murdoch appear before a televised committee of suddenly irreverent MPs was to see something dragged out into the light: a power relationship that would never be quite the same again.
(9) Talked a lot about Under Milk Wood: how he came to London in 1953, with a fiver in his pocket, and went in search of Dylan Thomas in the Soho and Fitzrovia pubs, only to find that he had just croaked in New York.
(10) But as the fearless Ali strutted on, inventing new ways, new scenes, new angles, new endings, those croaking pronouncements of veterans petered out.
(11) The only MacTaggarts regularly recalled with relish are those in which all-powerful television grandees were venomously slagged off in public - Dennis Potter's attack on the then BBC director general John Birt as a "croak-voiced Dalek" in 1993, and Michael Grade's escalation of his own feud with Birt the previous year.
(12) I learn to distinguish the croaks of the marsh frog from the scratchy cry of the reed warbler and watch brightly coloured damselflies darting about in the bullrushes.
(13) This report investigates the sources of stimuli which initiate and inhibit the release croak of Rana pipiens.
(14) It can be a surprisingly noisy place, what with the barking of the muntjac deer, the croaking of the frogs, the quacking of the widgeons … Look and listen out for Faint lights near the ground, especially in June and July.
(15) Cool off after a hot day on the beach in the natural swimming pond, complete with lily pads and croaking frogs.
(16) At the moment the city also sounds like seagulls croaking at each other from outside my window from about 3am every morning.
(17) Roger no longer expresses a desire to croak it prematurely although he is 69 years old now and back on the road.
(18) Even if it was in a husky croak, and I couldn't manage the chorus.
(19) There was no trace of human life, only the croak of a raven and a trickling stream.
(20) The pectoral fin of the croaking gourami, Trichopsis vittatus, has become modified as a sound-producing organ and retains its original function in locomotion and hovering.
Croup
Definition:
(n.) The hinder part or buttocks of certain quadrupeds, especially of a horse; hence, the place behind the saddle.
(n.) An inflammatory affection of the larynx or trachea, accompanied by a hoarse, ringing cough and stridulous, difficult breathing; esp., such an affection when associated with the development of a false membrane in the air passages (also called membranous croup). See False croup, under False, and Diphtheria.
Example Sentences:
(1) Because of the controversy regarding the benefits of the lateral neck and chest radiographs in the evaluation of croup and epiglottitis, a two-part retrospective study was initiated.
(2) Patients with bronchiectasis or cystic fibrosis have exaggerated airway reactivity; croup in children can also cause exaggerated upper and lower airway responsiveness.
(3) Recurrent croup was significantly associated with a patient history of asthma and wheezy bronchitis and a family history of croup.
(4) This is a retrospective study of 500 cases of hospitalized patients with the diagnosis of croup (laryngotrachitis), admitted between January 1986 and August 1988, at the Montreal Children's Hospital.
(5) Steroid therapy reduces the duration of intubation and the need for reintubation in children intubated for croup.
(6) 447 patients with a diagnosis of acute viral croup were admitted to the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of Singleton Hospital, Swansea, between January 1st 1980 and December 31st 1984.
(7) Both a prior history of croup of bronchiolitis (OR = 2.29, p = 0.04) and greater than 2 acute lower respiratory illnesses (OR = 3.72, p = 0.012) were associated with increased levels of airway responsiveness.
(8) The purpose of this prospective study was to determine in 261 children whether the "minor" allergic respiratory diseases (MARD) (chronic cough, bronchitis asthmatic, rhinopharyngitis, recurrent otitis media, croup) are due to inhalants allergens and, if so, whether they can be treated with two therapeutic protocols.
(9) Children 6 months to 6 years of age with a croup score of 6 or above were assigned in a randomized double-blind fashion to receive either racemic (n = 16) or L-epinephrine (n = 15) aerosols.
(10) However, he developed a recurrence following an episode of croup.
(11) This difference in mortality was most obvious for children aged under 2 years (one death out of 46 children receiving supplements versus seven deaths out of 42 controls; p less than 0.05) and for cases complicated by croup or laryngotracheobronchitis.
(12) The use of adrenocorticoids to reduce the morbidity associated with laryngotracheitis (croup) remains controversial despite ten published reports of randomized trials involving 1,286 patients.
(13) The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a protocol for the outpatient management of laryngotracheitis (croup) using racemic epinephrine and steroids.
(14) Clinical findings included fever (greater than or equal to 38 degrees C) (88%), rhinorrhea (62.6%), cough (50%), otitis (50%), rhonchi (42%), vomiting (38%), diarrhea (33%), rales (21%), pharyngitis (13%) and croup (4%).
(15) No tracheostomy-related complications or symptoms were reported apart from croup in two patients.
(16) Some studies have compared the occurrence of croup with locally measured concentrations of pollutants, while others have observed differences in the incidence of croup between populations subjected to different levels of pollution.
(17) In 241 outpatients with asthma a higher prevalence of croup (33.2%) was found than in 131 controls (20.6%).
(18) Other complications included croup (1), hydrops of the gallbladder (2), paralytic ileus (1), and abnormal focal neurological signs in two patients.
(19) Three aspects of the pharmacological treatment of pseudo-croup are discussed in this article.
(20) These same features are often noted in children with the viral croup syndrome.